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James Franklin admits crowd noise at Ohio Stadium a factor for Penn State offense
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Columbus is often revered as one of the most difficult venues in college football for opposing teams. With over 100,000 passionate fans filling Ohio Stadium, the environment can be one of the loudest in the country.
James Franklin admitted that the noise was a huge factor at different points throughout the game.
Ohio State registered a 28-17 win over Penn State on Saturday, improving to 11-0 on the year and securing the B1G East title and a trip to Indianapolis. The defense was stifling again, thanks to the return of star defensive end Chase Young.
After the game, though, Franklin confessed that, at times, Penn State’s offense had trouble dealing with the crowd noise.
“We were just in a position where the o-line could not hear [the quarterback],” Franklin said, according to Eleven Warriors. “They were guessing the cadence and obviously [the noise was an issue in the game.”
James Franklin on the crowd noise: “We were just in a position where the o-line could not hear [Levis]. They were guessing the cadence and obviously [the noise] was an issue in the game.”https://t.co/MAorRQbEo7
— Eleven Warriors (@11W) November 24, 2019
Part of the issue was Sean Clifford went out of the game in the second half with injury, putting back up Will Levis into the starting role for the rest of the afternoon. That was cause for some of the issues in communication.
Clearly, though, Franklin thought the 100,000-plus inside The Horseshoe were a major factor as well. Not a bad way to round out the final home game of the season for the Buckeyes.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB